Janus Capital Launches Smart Growth™ ETFs: Janus Small Cap Growth Alpha ETF (JSML), Janus Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha ETF (JSMD)

DENVER, Feb. 25, 2016 -- Janus Capital Group, Inc., (NYSE:JNS) today announced the launch of two enhanced beta Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) —Janus Small Cap Growth Alpha ETF (NASDAQ:JSML) and Janus Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha ETF (NASDAQ:JSMD) – Janus Smart Growth^TM ETFs. To celebrate the launch of the two funds, Janus employees and clients will ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange at 9:30am ET on February 25, 2016.

Janus Smart Growth ETFs utilize a systematic process that seeks to identify resilient small and mid-cap companies poised for long-run sustainable growth.

“We view traditional fundamental active investing as both an art and a science,” said Jonathan Coleman, Head of Growth Equities and Portfolio Manager at Janus Capital. “We were able to extract the science behind our legacy small and mid-cap investment process and quantified key attributes of Smart Growth^TM and package them into a systematic process, creating a systematic index methodology.”
                                                                
“These ETFs marry Janus's expertise as a fundamental manager in the small cap arena with our robust quantitative abilities in exchange traded products,” said Nick Cherney, Senior Vice President, Head of Exchange Traded Products of Janus Capital Group.  “As client interest in ETFs grows, we will continue to look for innovative ways to create value for clients in the future.”
                                         
Our proprietary methodology evaluates every company in the eligible universe on 10 fundamental factors in 3 key areas that we believe define Smart Growth ^TM. It then identifies the companies that meet our criteria and selects the top 10% while maintaining a well-diversified portfolio across sectors. We believe this approach can produce attractive risk-adjusted returns as compared to traditional growth indices.

The Janus Small Cap Growth Alpha ETF and Janus Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha ETF seek to replicate Janus’ proprietary indexes, the Janus Small Cap Growth Alpha Index and the Janus Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha Index, respectively.

The Janus Smart Growth products are the first ETFs to launch since Janus' November 2014 acquisition of VS Holdings, Inc., the parent company of VelocityShares, LLC, the developer of sophisticated solutions for institutional investors and traders. Janus' exchange traded products business is approximately $3.2 billion in assets across 17 investment products as of Dec. 31, 2015.

About Janus Capital Group, Inc.

Janus Capital Group Inc. ("JCG") is a global investment firm dedicated to delivering better outcomes for clients through a broad range of actively managed and smart beta investment solutions, including fixed income, equity, alternative and multi-asset class strategies. It does so through a number of distinct asset management platforms, including investment teams within Janus Capital Management LLC ("Janus"), as well as INTECH Investment Management LLC ("INTECH") and Perkins Investment Management LLC ("Perkins"), in addition to a suite of exchange-traded products under VelocityShares. Each team brings distinct asset class expertise, perspective, style-specific experience and a disciplined approach to risk. Investment strategies are offered through open-end funds domiciled in both the U.S. and offshore, as well as through separately managed accounts, collective investment trusts and exchange-traded products. At the end of December 2015, JCG's complex-wide assets totaled approximately $192.3 billion for shareholders, clients and institutions around the globe. Based in Denver, Colorado, JCG also has offices in London, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, Paris, The Hague, Zurich, Frankfurt, Dubai and Taipei, as well as Boston, Mass., Darien, Conn., Princeton, N.J., West Palm, Fla., Chicago, Ill., and Newport Beach, Calif.  

Performance for very short time periods may not be indicative of future performance. The ETFs are new products.

There are risks involved with investing, including possible loss of principal. Performance depends upon the underlying index in which it invests. Smaller capitalization companies may be less stable and more susceptible to adverse developments, and their securities may be more volatile and less liquid than larger capitalization companies.

There is no assurance that the rules-based proprietary index methodology will select securities that individually, or in the aggregate, outperform the broader small- or mid-capitalization universes.

ETF shares are not individually redeemable and owners of the shares may acquire those shares from the Fund and tender those shares for redemption to the Fund in Creation Units only, typically consisting of aggregations of 50,000 shares.

Janus Small Cap Alpha Index and Janus Small/Mid Cap Alpha Index are designed to systematically identify small- and small- and mid-capitalization stocks, respectively that are poised for sustainable growth (Smart Growth^TM) by evaluating each company’s performance in three critical areas: growth, profitability, and capital efficiency. Janus uses a proprietary methodology to score stocks based on a wide range fundamental measures and selects the top 10% (“top-tier”) of such eligible stocks. These stocks are then weighted according to their market capitalization, and then adjusted for sector weights and single stock concentration. A Fund's portfolio may differ significantly from the securities in an index.  An investment cannot be made directly in an index.

Enhanced Beta or Smart Beta defines a set of investment strategies that emphasize the use of alternative index construction rules to traditional market capitalization based indices.

Please consider the charges, risks, expenses, and investment objectives carefully before investing.  For a prospectus containing this and other information, please call 877.33.JANUS (52687) or download the file from janus.com/ETFs.  Read it carefully before you invest or send money. 

Janus Capital Management LLC is the investment adviser and ALPS Distributors, Inc. is the distributor. ALPS is not affiliated with Janus,INTECH Investment Management LLC, Perkins Investment Management LLC and VelocityShares.

JNS121 05-30-17

Media Contact:
Erin Passan, 303-394-7681
[email protected]

Investor Contact:
John Groneman, 303-336-7466
[email protected]